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Milne blasts Labor on miners, environment

The Australian Greens have accused Labor of putting the interests of big miners ahead of the national interest and the environment.

Leader Christine Milne has used a blistering attack on the federal government ahead of the September 14 election to call on voters to support the minor party's candidates in the Senate and lower house.

Senator Milne said Prime Minister Julia Gillard's government had walked away from three of the four principles of its agreement with the Greens, forged after the last election in 2010.

"By choosing the big miners, the Labor government is no longer honouring our agreement to work together to promote transparent and accountable government, the public interest or to address climate change," she told the National Press Club in Canberra on Tuesday.

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"Labor has effectively ended its agreement with the Greens."

The Greens are angry at the government's decision to allow mining in Tasmania's Tarkine forest, a push by unions to make coal seam gas development easier and the apparent failure of Labor's mining tax.

In its first six months, the 30 per cent minerals resource rent tax (MRRT) on coal and iron ore super profits raised $126 million - well down on the $2 billion it was forecast to deliver in 2012/13.

The Greens want the "dud" tax overhauled but believes Labor lacks the "courage or the will".

"What has become manifestly clear is that Labor, by its actions, has walked away from its agreement with the Greens, into the arms of the big miners," Senator Milne said.

But the Greens would honour the spirit of its agreement with the government.

"And that was to deliver confidence and supply until the parliament rises for the election," she said.

"The Greens will not add to the instability that Labor creates every day for itself."

A spokesman for government house leader Anthony Albanese said not much would change because none of the cross-benchers, including sole Greens MP Adam Bandt, ever guaranteed Labor a vote on legislation.

Australian Workers' Union national secretary Paul Howes said it was Senator Milne's "boo-hoo" moment.

"At the end of the day the federal Labor government has delivered for jobs," Mr Howes told reporters on the Gold Coast.

"It is the government that has made the major environmental reforms," Mr Combet told reporters in Brisbane.

Senator Milne also attacked Opposition Leader Tony Abbott, who has vowed to scrap the mining tax if the coalition wins government.

"Without the Greens holding the balance of power in the Senate, Australia risks the repeal of the mining tax - giving up on any chance of the Australian community receiving its fair share of the bounty of our mineral wealth," she said.

"The threat of an Abbott-controlled Senate is real," she said, saying the Greens Senate team would act as a bulwark against an Abbott government.

Senator Milne appealed for support for the party's only lower house MP Adam Bandt.

Earlier, she reaffirmed the Greens would push for a parliamentary inquiry into the MRRT to uncover its flaws and determine how to fix them.